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I have Shifted.

Hi All,

Please note that I have shifted my blog to WordPress. Maintaining a custom server and wordpress installation was getting tougher and tougher. Also IIT-B network doesn’t allow me to use FTP, it added to the problems.

Also the server seemed too slow to most of my readers. It is not only that I am shifting the service provider, I am also going to blog a bit less regularly, but that doesn’t mean I will invest less time in it. Now onwards I am going to cautiously stick to fewer topic, focusing on depth and quality.

I am also going to work on my spellings grammar and articulation skills. Till now I have been blogging for myself, never felt a need to address someone or to generate a discussion. Nevertheless I will be always happy to see more and more people commenting, criticizing and mailing me in response.

NEW LINK: http://akshar100.wordpress.com

RSS FEED: http://akshar100.wordpress.com/feed/

Regards,

Akshar

Posted in Tatva-gyaan.

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By Akshar – October 30, 2009

Little Joys of Life: A List

The toughest part of my life at IIT has been of managing time. Last year I had developed the habit of preparing To-Do lists which came very handy here. By the end of the day I end up finishing only half the items on the list. I use OSMO on my Ubuntu OS to prepare these lists.

What I have realized is that even a list for a day is macro-management for a lazy bum like me. What I really need is micro-managing my time. It is not enough to figure out what I need to do the whole day but I need to figure out what I need to do in next 3 hours.

I have tried this using paper lists and I have found it very beneficial. When I have more stricter deadlines I end up wasting lesser time on things such as checking mails, playing Mafia Wars on Facebook, reading/writing blogs, Twitter etc.

I feel a need for handheld personal organizer very badly. Something that should have an alarm as well. Unfortunately my budget is too mean to buy something like that hence I am using a notebook.

But there is an immense joy in preparing this list. I am preparing a list titled
“Little Joys of Life”

  1. Reading a fresh Book

  2. Smelling a cup of hot tea (with ginger in it) on a roadside Dabhaa.

  3. Meeting an Old Crush

  4. Riding at 90kmph on a straight barren road.

  5. Helping an Old man to do something.

  6. Helping a little kid with his math

  7. Listening to “khut-khut” sound/noise of an old Ushaa fan keeping your eyes closed and trying to sleep.

  8. Waking up early morning listening to your favorite song on radio

  9. Waking up very early in the morning despite realizing that you have no work to do the whole day.

  10. Watching a B-grade movie on a winter morning, covered in a thick blanket on the bed.

  11. Winning a consolation prize in some irrelevant, insignificant competition

  12. Spending a night on Railway Platform

  13. Remembering the last time I sat under a tree with no worries in my head.

  14. Finding the remote just next to you when you want to change the channel.

I have certainly missed many. Feel free to add in comments.

Posted in Lists.

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By Akshar – October 22, 2009

Exams@ IIT B

I had written about the grading system in IIT-Bombay. Now I thought I will write about the examination system.

I think one reason why IITs have been center for excellence (despite being Government institutions) for such a long time is the autonomy that they enjoy. Here the profs have complete freedom to design their course, their syllabus and also evaluating mechanism.

Generally purely theoretical subjects contain 2 Quiz, one end sem, one mid sem and weekly assignments as evaluating criteria. The number of marks alloted to them are not so important what matters is the “weightage” each of these criterias have. E.g. End sem for some profs is of 50% weightage where as some profs it’s only 10 and weekly assignments are of 80% weightage.

Other subjects where theory can be applied, e.g Artificial Intelligence, we have 2 Quizs (surprise quizs), Lots of programming assignments, 1 paper presentation, 1 Seminar is the form of book discussion. (Emperor’s new mind and Society of Mind), end sem and mid sem. And Guess what? All th Exams are open book exams. You are free to get your notes in examination hall and use them. And still I got only 40% .

Software Engineering is a subject where we haven’t got any exams at all. We are supposed to do a real project for real clients using the methodology in the class. 25% of marks are purely on what your client thinks of your project.

What I have realized here in these few months is, it is not about studying for exam but it is about accepting study as a way of life. I haven’t referred to a single textbook except one on mathematics till now, but the amount of thinking I have invested is lot more that what I did in 4 years of undergraduate education.

It is a real pleasure to learn these subjects from people who have absolute clarity about what they are talking. For example DBMS course will be taught by Sudarshan, the Korth and Sudarshan textbook fame.

I have not been able to make full benefit of the system yet. I rarely open my mouth in class because, my thinking process is very slow compared to others. It takes me more time to understand the subject and when the questions really occur in my mind, the prof is out of the class. Besides, for last so many years I had absolute disrespect for the Teacher-student learning model mostly due to the teacher I had in Goa Engineering College.

But overall the system is good and it is good because of the autonomy the institution has in managing its own affairs. Arjun Singh did screw up things by a fair amount that that is why 4 of us have to share one room. Lets hope Mr. Sibbal would not screw things harder.

Posted in IIT.

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By Akshar – October 16, 2009